There’s something about the photo that appeared with the online version of the story “Amadas celebrates anniversary” on Nov. 30 that just shouts “American ingenuity!” The photo showed a Corvette convertible towing a peanut picker designed and built by the company in its early days, when it was still known as Hobbs-Adams Engineering.

Setting aside, for the moment, the agricultural innovation represented by the picker, the simple fact of a company using the resources available (a sports car) to haul its new product around to show potential customers is a great example of people believing in a product so much that they’re willing to do whatever it takes to make sure the people who could benefit from it get a chance to see it.

For 50 years, Amadas Industries and its predecessor have been agricultural innovators. The image of the sports car towing a peanut picker is just one example of the lengths the Suffolk company has gone to move those innovations to market.

The efforts have paid off. According to sales and industrial engineer Jimmy Adams III, whose father, grandfather and great-uncle started the business, 2012 was Amadas’ best year ever. With its main manufacturing facility located on Holland Road, the company also has locations in Georgia, Texas and Argentina. It exports to Africa and Asia and has been one of the main driving forces behind industrializing peanut agriculture on those continents.

The company manufactures peanut harvesting and irrigation equipment and, according to Adams, is considered the world market leader. In 1967, it introduced the two-row peanut combine, and in 1980 the Reel Rain Irrigation line was introduced. A four-row peanut combine was introduced in 1989, a six-row combine only two years later and an 8-row, self-propelled combine five years after that. Now, the work that used to take three men in the field can be done by one.

Despite the company’s long history in Suffolk, most folks don’t know the origin of the name, Amadas. When Oliver Hobbs, Adams’ great-uncle and man whose designs were at the foundation of the early company’s success, decided to retire in 1988, a group of employees decided to buy the company and rename it. The new name was an acronym for “American Manufactured, Advanced Design, Absolute Service.”

It’s a name that perfectly describes the core values of the company and the great pride its employees have in its products. And it’s a name that Suffolk can be proud to still call its own, 50 years later.